“I am very glad to hear it. I hope it will do him good.”
“Yes, but he has challenged Prince Ernest of Hohenlinden,” said Dick, solemnly.
Anna became very grave.
“And if he should not be prevented he will fight him.”
“Fight a duel! Dick, do you know what you are saying? Are you in your senses?”
“I am. It is Alick who is mad.”
“Fight a duel! What! in this age and in this country?”
“Yes, in this age and in this country, my dear! And I do not see, for my part, how it can be helped—I mean prevented—except by the police. I saw the whole thing, Anna. Just as your carriage drove off, Alick claps his hand upon the prince and charges him then and there with insulting a lady and stealing a bouquet. You should have seen Prince Ernest then. Talk about the Germans being phlegmatic! Though Prince Ernest is an Austrian, by the way. Why, Anna, he jumped two feet from the ground at the first charge, and vaulted four feet into the air at the second. If they are permitted to meet, he will eat Alick’s head.”
“A duel in England! and at this time of the world!”
“But you must remember that it is not to be between Englishmen, but between an Austrian and an American and not, probably, in England; but upon some of the little islands of the channel.”